The 7 Questions You MUST Ask Every Franchisor In An Initial Interview

You’ve decided it’s FINALLY time you do what you love and love what you do.

You want to be your own boss and start a business.

You know that your best chance of success in achieving that is with a franchise.

With over 4,000 franchises to choose from, you know you’ll be more likely to find the PERFECT one by working with a franchise placement specialist.

You’ve winnowed down the list of serious contenders to a few. You’re excited and eager to have conversations with these franchisors to learn more about their business models and what they’re looking for in a franchisee.

Remember, this is a 2-way interview. The franchisor will be asking you questions to determine if you’re going to be a good fit for their business. So the questions that you ask are very important, especially in that initial conversation.

Here are the top 7 questions we encourage our clients to ask franchisors on their initial interview:

• What are the trends in this industry?

You want to understand if the industry is growing and if so, what are some of the factors contributing to that (ex: demographics, geography, regulations, etc.

• Who are your biggest competitors?      

Competition is good. It means there’s a market for the products or services being offered. Understand who the competition is and what the franchisor is doing to differentiate itself as the leader.

• What support do you provide to franchisees?

You’re not only buying the rights to use the brand/name when you invest in a franchise, you’re also investing in support and training. Understand what types of training and support the franchisor provides (ex: virtual, in-person), when and how training/support is provided, and what the structure of that support/training looks like (ex: some franchisors provide it only on a national level, some regional, some local.

• How do you support franchisees with marketing?

Remember you want to be in business FOR yourself, not BY yourself. Marketing is vital for every business. What type(s) of marketing resources are available to you as a franchisee to help you get more customers and clients?

• What is it that contributes to the success of your top franchisees? What is it that isn’t being done that is hindering poorly performing franchisees?

You want to understand what differentiates the best from the poor performers. You’re going into business because you want to the best. Understand what the top performers are doing so you can do the same.

• What can you share with me about revenues, expenses and investment?

Note that franchisors cannot make any earnings claims. It makes complete sense because every business is different and the franchisor is not a genie who will be able to tell you what you’ll make. However, every franchisor should be able to present you with a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) which will detail many of your revenue, expense and investment questions. Ask for a copy of their FDD, review it, and schedule another call with the franchisor to discuss it further.

• In what ways do you collect best practices and share them with franchisees in your system?

This will give you insight into how collaborative and supportive franchisees are with each other. Being able to learn from others who have “been there, done that” and are willing to share and learn from each other, is the benchmark of a strong franchise system. 

Use these 7 questions to help you gain insight into each franchise system you’re having an initial interview with. You got this!